Holyrood, made browsable

Government accountability

Written questions only — average time-to-answer per minister, slowest responders, and the oldest still-unanswered questions. Oral questions (FMQs, portfolio, topical) are answered in the chamber and excluded here.

Oversight metrics

How quickly ministers answer

Written questions only. Oral questions (FMQ, portfolio, topical) are answered live in the chamber — they don't carry a written reply timestamp, so they'd skew the "unanswered" count.

Written questions submitted
1,872
in 2026
Answered
1,869
99.8%
Unanswered
3
awaiting a written reply
Avg time to answer
13.0 days
across 1,869 answered
Most-answered ministers
Minister Answered Avg days Range
Gillian Martin 273 13.1 1–37
Neil Gray 184 10.3 1–29
Jenni Minto 165 12.0 0–25
Fiona Hyslop 155 12.2 1–30
Ivan McKee 139 14.2 5–132
Mairi McAllan 97 14.0 1–58
Angela Constance 96 15.3 1–32
Tom Arthur 91 11.7 1–31
Jim Fairlie 73 12.8 1–30
Shirley-Anne Somerville 71 13.4 1–29
Mairi Gougeon 66 10.7 6–26
Jenny Gilruth 63 14.3 1–31
Shona Robison 55 16.2 1–58
Ben Macpherson 47 16.3 1–35
Kate Forbes 46 11.3 0–28
Richard Lochhead 40 12.4 1–28
Angus Robertson 40 16.9 6–41
Maree Todd 38 13.0 1–26
Siobhian Brown 36 11.2 4–29
Natalie Don-Innes 31 11.6 1–22
Kaukab Stewart 27 11.2 6–26
Graeme Dey 24 13.5 7–28
Dorothy Bain 8 17.4 13–21
Slowest to answer

Min. 20 answered questions in scope.

  • Angus Robertson 16.9 days · 40 qs
  • Ben Macpherson 16.3 days · 47 qs
  • Shona Robison 16.2 days · 55 qs
  • Angela Constance 15.3 days · 96 qs
  • Jenny Gilruth 14.3 days · 63 qs
  • Ivan McKee 14.2 days · 139 qs
  • Mairi McAllan 14.0 days · 97 qs
  • Graeme Dey 13.5 days · 24 qs
  • Shirley-Anne Somerville 13.4 days · 71 qs
  • Gillian Martin 13.1 days · 273 qs
  • Maree Todd 13.0 days · 38 qs
  • Jim Fairlie 12.8 days · 73 qs
  • Richard Lochhead 12.4 days · 40 qs
  • Fiona Hyslop 12.2 days · 155 qs
  • Jenni Minto 12.0 days · 165 qs
Oldest unanswered questions